Drinking

[kamie]

My puppy never seems to want to drink any water. Hes beggining to only want to eat and drink out of my hand. He goes to his bowl to eat and eats a couple of bites and walks away. But if i hold the food in the palm of my hand or on my fingers,he will eat it all and act like he still wants more. The same with the water. He likes me to hold my hand in the bowl. (this is just getting him a little too spoiled I think) But i do it cause I want him to drink ebnough. Any suggestions?

[rowan_mommy]

Now keep in mind that I've had my Rowan for 3 days but for the first day n a half or so I had the same issue with her not wanting to eat or drink unless I was right there and giving her the food or holding her water bowl. What I did was in part to help this but mostly to help with potty training- I only put her food and water out at scheduled times and praise her when she eats and drinks (works kinda like going potty) but after i put her food and water out I leave the room and leave her food and water out for 30 minutes at a time. After a couple of times she got the idea that I love her but I'm not gonna hand feed her.

[stacy15]

What kind of bowl are you using? Maybe he doesn't like it.  Have you tried changing it? 

[eepuni]

you could try getting a raised bowl for dog... maybe they just prefer it to be up higher off the ground so they don't have to bend down....

[Luigi23]

For the first couple of days that I had my Luigi, he also only wanted to eat out of my hand. For awhile there, I was holding my hand over the bowl and then I would slowly remove it so he could see the whole bowl of food waiting for him. He ended up grabbing a couple of more bites from the bowl and then he would walk away. I signalled to the bowl a couple of more times after he walked away but he would never come back to eat. So i took the bowl away even though he didn't eat that much. I felt bad like I was denying him nutrtion, but then when I put the bowl out again at his next scheduled time, he was so hungry that he ate everything out of his bowl. He's eating and drinking out of his bowl without my help now, but it did take about 2 weeks for him to warm up to it. That was my experience, hope that kinda helps.  good luck!

[Ann]

Yeh that was my experience to. Toby just needed confidence to eat out of his bowl after all it was totally new to him and a bit scary.